Zayed University is currently engaged in cooperative relationships with a number of institutions throughout the world such as: Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies in Scotland, Australian National University, School of Business Management and Organization of the Foundation Antonio Genovesi Salerno in Italy, Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain and Waseda University in Japan.[1]

In November 2014, Zayed University was ranked 23rd out of 25 in the QS World University Arab Rankings.[2] It does not feature in any world rankings.[3][4][5]

Through the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation Continuous Improvement Commission (CAEP),[11] in 2013 the College of Education received accreditation by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Zayed University College of Education is the first university, outside of the USA, to be internationally accredited.

Zayed University has adopted an outcomes-based academic program model. The programs are outcomes-based and designed with reference to the Zayed University Learning Outcomes. These were designed by hired U.S. consultants as a means of developing the necessary outcomes to prepare students for the world.[12]

The major outcomes-based programs are housed the six academic outcomes-based colleges. Outcomes-based majors are based on Zayed University's learning outcomes; they are discipline specific, yet outcomes based![13]

In December 2010, the Federal National Council queried the competency of the university's senior management. According to The National, Zayed University was reported to owe over Dh33 million in unpaid water and electricity bills.[15]

According to The National, three men held the position of provost between April and June 2011, seven since 1998.[16]

In 2012, questions were raised about the effectiveness of its teacher education program. According to The National, none of the 110 teachers it produced between 2010 and 2012 were employed by the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC); ADEC claimed Zayed University produces graduates with poor skills and lazy attitudes.[17]

In early 2013, the founding president of Zayed University, Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, was dismissed as the U.A.E.'s Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research. The surprise announcement that Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan would move to the Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development, was made on Twitter by Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Sheikh Nahyan was subsequently displaced as president of Zayed University. Most members of the university's senior administration were also dismissed in 2013, including vice president Sulaiman Al Jassim and provost Larry Wilson. Maitha Al Shamsi was then instated as president in 2013.[18] She was soon followed by Lubna Khalid Al Qasimi, who was appointed President on March 4, 2014.

As well as existing concerns over academic integrity, transparency, and plagiarism at Zayed University, concerns have been raised about the weak academic credentials and lack of international experience among the new management.[19]

In 2013, then-president Maitha Al Shamsi announced Zayed University would be completely restructured. Though Al Shamsi did not explain what kind of restructuring she would implement, she said Zayed University would now be based on the U.A.E. government's Charter for National Values and Ethics and would undertake a total revision of all "academic programmes and management polices."[20]

In January 2011, The National reported that Zayed University staff would receive a 2% pay raise retroactive to August 2010, which reportedly would be their first pay raise in three and a half years. The provost later acknowledged that "salaries have not kept pace with inflation."[23]

On 16 September 2013, The National reported a torrent of complaints by students at Zayed University against policy changes introduced by the new president, Maitha Al Shamsi. These changes include sending SMS messages to parents when students arrive or leave campus, increasing faculty teaching loads, and preventing students from changing their class schedules.[24] Then-provost Abdalla Al Amiri angrily rebuffed the article the following day, explaining that the SMS system is optional, no faculty teach 15 credit hours per semester, and that student schedules can be changed in University College.[25]

Creating further confusion, on 18 September 2013, the Gulf News reported that Zayed University would be completely restructured.[26]

In 2012, an American journalism professor working in the College of Communication and Media Sciences was dismissed from the Abu Dhabi campus.[27] The professor, Dr. Matt J. Duffy, expressed concern that his activities-—which included writing for Gulf News, launching a student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and teaching objectively about the U.A.E.'s media laws—-may have led to his dismissal.[28] Duffy's dismissal breached policies on academic freedom laid out by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, which state, "To impose political considerations upon faculty selection and retention harms an institution intellectually and educationally, not only by reducing its options in the recruitment of talent, but also by creating pressures against dissent on important policy issues."[29] Despite claiming to follow Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its MSCHE Self-Study ("Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers"), the university would not comment on the case in public.[30]